But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
John 15:26 NLT
As Jesus prepares for His death, He comforts the disciples. He tells them multiple times in the Upper Room discourse that He is going away but won’t leave them without help. He promises to send the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I find myself wishing I could have walked along the shore of Galilee with Jesus, sat at His feet while He taught, watched as He healed the blind. But then I am reminded that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live within me; through the Spirit, God is present in my every moment, my own personal tutor, and daily working the miracle of life transformation as I lean into Him.
It’s good to remind ourselves of the work of the Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is our helper; He teaches and reminds us of all we have learned.
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. … But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
John 14: 16-17, 26 NLT
The Advocate convicts us of sin.
But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
John 16:7-8 NLT
The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
John 16:13-14 NLT
He dwells in us – just like God filled the tabernacle in the Old Testament!
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
The Spirit is a source of revelation, wisdom, and power – he searches even the deep things of God.
But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:10-11 NLT
He gives us spiritual gifts – gifts of administration, generosity, and hospitality.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. … It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NLT
The Holy Spirit marks us as God’s child – He is a “legal signature” in our lives that God will complete his work in us!
It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This down payment from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
Ephesians 1:13 MSG
He prays on our behalf, with wordless groans, interceding for us.
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
Romans 8:26-27 NLT
The Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies!
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
Romans 8:11 NLT
The Spirit produces fruit in our lives as we submit to His leading.
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Galatians 5:22-23 NLT
My Prayer
As the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians, I pray that from God’s glorious, unlimited resources, He will empower us with inner strength through His Spirit. May Christ make His home in our hearts as we trust in Him. May our roots grow down into God’s love and keep us strong. May we all have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May we experience the love of Christ and be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
